Description: Life and annuity markets around the world have seen increasingly complex investment-combined products, including universal life, fixed indexed annuities, variable annuities with a wide variety of guaranteed benefits, indexed variable annuities, etc. Insurance companies are facing unprecedented exposure to financial risks in addition to traditional mortality and longevity risks. The risk assessment and modeling for such complex designs by conventional methods often focus heavily on their market competitiveness and profitability. However, there seems to be a lack of quantifiable and systematic approach to assess investment risks associated with investment combined products. The objective of the proposed work is to develop a framework for quantifying and analyzing various forms of contractual designs and showcase different techniques to assess the trade-off between competitive contractual designs and their practical implications with regard to the difficulty of risk management.

Description: Join us for discussion about the tax implications for direct writers ceding annuity blocks. The presenters will describe the mechanics and consequences for both onshore and offshore reinsurance arrangements. This will introduce the audience to the tax consequences, with the risk transfer of annuity features and guarantees to reinsurers to reinsurers that are US-based and not US domiciled.

Description: This session at the 1998 Valuation Actuary Symposium discusses issues related to variable and fixed deferred annuity modeling.

Description: Living benefits (GLWBs) in fixed index annuity products are typically accounted for under SOP03-1 under current GAAP guidance. LDTI requires companies to classify these riders as Market Risk Benefit (MRB). This webcast focuses on challenges and considerations of the MRB implementation. Industry practices of the reserving approach will be shared during this webcast, as well as hedging and pricing implications.

Description: This paper applies the research in Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky to explain why sales of annuities lag sales of life insurance products. The author theorizes that life insurance is easier to sell because customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of losses, while potential annuity customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of gains. Kahneman and Tversky showed us that people are mostly risk averse in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. Purchase of an annuity or life product is a risky investment. Customers will find it easier to take the risk in the life insurance domain of losses than the annuity domain of gains. The author then proposes a hybrid life annuity product that might address both mortality and longevity risk in one product that would allow both products to be more competitive than stand-alone products.

Description: The article analyzes Private Letter Ruling 202031008, which considers how Internal Revenue Code sections 72(q) and (u) apply to an annuity contract issued to a trust. In particular, the Ruling interprets the terms “taxpayer,” “holder” and “held by” in those Code sections in situations where a non-qualified deferred annuity contract is issued to a grantor trust or a non-grantor trust. The Ruling’s analysis and conclusions differ in some respects depending on which of these types of trusts is involved. In addition, although the Ruling does not address sections 72(s) or 72(e)(4)(C), the Ruling has potential implications under those provisions because they also use the term “holder” and “holds,” respectively.

Description: This study examines the persistency of deferred annuities on a contract anniversary basis for 1992 and 1993 anniversaries. One purpose of this study is to analyze the surrender activity of deferred annuities by selected product, customer, and distribution characteristics. This study is the first to examine surrender activity of all types of deferred annuities.

Description: This paper discusses the calculation of minimum statutory non-forfeiture values for annuity contracts with stipulated annual payments under which contractual values are based on the 1937 Standard Annuity Table.

Description: The author offers his proof that an annuity for the life expectancy exceeds a life annuity.

Description: 1997 Valuation Actuary Symposium, Session 21 looks at advanced topics in annuity modeling.